New Hampshire
New Hampshire is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States. It is bordered by Massachusetts to the south, Vermont to the west, Maine and the Gulf of Maine to the east, and the Canadian province of Quebec to the nor ...
, United States, in the town of Madbury. An eastern arm of the lake extends a short distance into Dover. The reservoir serves as the primary water supply for the city of Portsmouth, New Hampshire. Its outlet is the
Bellamy River
The Bellamy River, in Strafford County, southeastern New Hampshire, is a tributary of the Piscataqua River about long. It rises in Swains Lake in Barrington, west of Dover. It flows east through the Bellamy Reservoir in Madbury and through ...
tidal estuary
An estuary is a partially enclosed coastal body of brackish water with one or more rivers or streams flowing into it, and with a free connection to the open sea. Estuaries form a transition zone between river environments and maritime environment ...
connected to the
Atlantic Ocean
The Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's five oceans, with an area of about . It covers approximately 20% of Earth's surface and about 29% of its water surface area. It is known to separate the " Old World" of Africa, Europe ...
by the
Piscataqua River
The Piscataqua River (Abenaki: ''Pskehtekwis'') is a tidal river forming the boundary of the U.S. states of New Hampshire and Maine from its origin at the confluence of the Salmon Falls River and Cochecho River. The drainage basin of the river ...
. The dam was built in 1960 to supply water to Portsmouth and the Pease Air Force base.
The reservoir is classified as a warmwater fishery, with observed species including
largemouth bass
The largemouth bass (''Micropterus salmoides'') is a carnivorous freshwater gamefish in the Centrarchidae ( sunfish) family, a species of black bass native to the eastern and central United States, southeastern Canada and northern Mexico, bu ...
,
chain pickerel
The chain pickerel (''Esox niger'') is a species of freshwater fish in the pike family (family Esocidae) of order Esociformes. The chain pickerel and the American pickerel (''E. americanus'') belong to the ''Esox'' genus of pike.
Taxonomy
Fren ...
,
horned pout
The brown bullhead (''Ameiurus nebulosus'') is a fish of the family Ictaluridae that is widely distributed in North America. It is a species of bullhead catfish and is similar to the black bullhead (''Ameiurus melas'') and yellow bullhead (''Am ...
List of lakes in New Hampshire
This is a list of lakes and ponds in the U.S. state of New Hampshire. The New Hampshire Department of Environmental Services lists 944 lakes and impoundments in their ''Official List of Public Waters''. The water bodies that are listed include nat ...